1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a relay communication device and more particularly to the relay communication device having a function of carrying out communications by relay such as an internet FAX (facsimile) or a like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Relay processing in a relay communication device having a relay communication function such as an internet FAX or a like is conventionally performed in such a way as described below. A sender performs the relay processing by addressing by describing [“password” # “transferred-to telephone number” @ “host name” in a column [To:] for an address of a header of E-mail (Electronic Mail) (hereinafter, an “address of a header of E-mail” being referred simply to as a “mail address”).
On the other hand, the internet FAX being the relay communication device having received E-mail addressed in the above form identifies a domain name from an address column for the mail address and, if the received E-mail is judged to be E-mail for relay processing and if the identified domain name matches with data (that is, a domain name) registered on the internet FAX, performs relay processing (that is, transmission for relay).
However, there is a problem that, if the conventional relay communication device such as the internet FAX has no function of receiving a specified E-mail transfer protocol, for example, a SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), the relay processing cannot be implemented.
Moreover, there is another problem that, in the relay processing by the conventional relay communication device, when a sender (a party requesting for relay transmission) makes a request of relay transmission to a plurality of destinations, [“password” # “transferred-to telephone number” @ “host name”] has to be described in the column [to: ] for the mail address in the number of times corresponding to the number of the plurality of the destinations, which causes very cumbersome inputting work, and therefore erroneous inputting easily occurs because the plurality of the destinations is input.
Also, there is still another problem that, in the relay processing by the conventional relay communication device, it is necessary to register a “host name”, which is a domain name designated by a sender (a party requesting for relay transmission), to be input subsequent to the mark “@” with a DNS (Domain name system) server on a network in an environment in which the relay communication device such as the internet FAX is used, which also causes cumbersome setting.
Furthermore, there is still another problem that, when the internet FAX has a function of receiving the E-mail transfer protocol, for example, the SMTP and is adapted to function as a mail server, the internet FAX serves as a contact with an outside (that is, with the Internet) and therefore a risk exists from a standpoint of security.
As described above, the conventional relay communication device such as the internet FAX has following problems to be solved. That is, in order to achieve the relay processing in the conventional communication device, it is necessary for the relay communication device itself to have a function of receiving the E-mail transfer protocol, for example, the SMTP or a like. Moreover, when a sender (a party requesting for relay transmission) makes a request for relay transmission to a plurality of destinations, cumbersome inputting to an address column is required and when the plurality of destinations has to be input, errors occur easily in the inputting procedures.
Also, the registration of a domain name designated by a sender (a party requesting for relay) with the DNS server on a network in an environment in which the relay communication device such as the internet FAX is used is required and its setting is cumbersome. Moreover, since the relay communication device is adapted to function as a mail server, it serves as a contact with an outside (that is, with the Internet), problems from a standpoint of security occurs.